Lesson No.1

Proudly functioning without a fucking MySpace account since 2004

Friday, February 27

ONE FOOT IN THE GLASS (UPDATE #2)

The INTERNETZ ate entirely the first lengthy attempt at posting this, so let's keep things simple in case of further failure: Oxford Collapse was great last week, thanks to all; next up is double trouble, with these two ear-breakers imminent for March. CHECK IT:

Shitmat, aka Henry Collins, plays his first Cardiff show for a few years. Hopefully it won’t be the last, at least for anyone who likes his overdriven, straight-up rofflin’ brand of breakcore, rinsin’ jungle, rave and mashed pop samples as much as Lesson No.1 does. He was going to ‘die’ at the end of this (very long) tour, presumably something to do with the release of his new album ‘One Foot In The Rave’ on the Planet Mu label, but guess he isn’t now. Whatever. This will be a midweek blast to the power of infinity. Get Shitty.

Don Leisure/Jamal are two guises of the Cardiff-based producer/DJ best known by the latter alias. Spanning everything from electronica to, latterly, dubstep, drum & bass is where Jamal made his name, however. Aligned with Cardiff's Aperture crew, Jamal worked for Dillinja & Lemon D’s Valve Recordings while living in London, but is now back as a resident of Wales's capital city. He's just had a single out on DJ Hype's Ganja-Tek label, which to these ears sounds like jungle being messily fed through a dubstep steel crusher, oiled with a love of thumping hip-hop beats. Peep those very tracks and more here.

Soundfiend is one of the major pushers of dubstep in Cardiff thanks to his nights Mud and, brand new on the block (in the Tafod venue), Phase Two. James Lawrie, as the government knows him, has spent a few years now honing his large, rumbling, dancefloor-friendly yet subtly steppin’ dubstep jams. He even got Radio 6 airplay recently. This should be great! Sounds of the soundboy here.

Parasite is a hero of the Bristol electronic scene with a hand in promo (the Toxic Dancehall and Bashout nights), a label (the awesome Death$ucker Records) and a distro (the equally awesome DSWAT). His set here will probably smash together jungle, breakcore, ragga and anything else you can link up with those genres. Get bitten.

Demon Cabbage is proof that when you make inroads into the music genre ‘breakcore’ you are likely to encounter some silly names. Steel yourself and wade in, though, because it can hide some pretty corking ruff jams. Based in Bristol, Demon Cabbage is one of the faces behind Shitmat’s excellent Wrong Music label; he will offer laptop-based live turnouts encompassing jungle and breakcore, we'd wager. Get, erm, Cabbaged.

There is more than likely one more name to be added to this line-up, but in the meantime: fly on down to Basement/Undertone (the basement club of 10 Feet Tall), Church Street, Cardiff, 9pm-3am, £5 on the door.

Nadja are a man with a beard and a lady who looks like a character from a webcomic, hailing from Canada and in Wales for one night only. While here they intend to send you into paroxysms of pleasedness with a really fantastic musical meeting of shoegazing, ambient drone, doom metal and electronics. Releases on rad labels like The End, Profound Lore, 20 Buck Spin and others. Skyscraping sounds here.

Black Cesar are fine late in the day replacement for the had-to-pull-out Fallen Painting (aka solo experimental folk type Nickie Charles). Black Cesar are not experimental folk, but they are folk who like to experiment with the doom, sludge, stoner and hard rock formalities a bit. Chiefly instrumental, their spacey, riffy jamouts have a strong backwash of country blues. For fans of Clutch, Fatso Jetson, Kyuss and Grand Funk. Split 7" with fellow local instru-metalists Zonderhoof, soon come. Tunes this way; the MySpace address suffix says it all, you'll find.

Caricatures are Bristol-based doom sludge exorcists with members of a bunch of bands from around the way (Mea Culpa and Rose Kemp's band). For fans of Khanate, Swans, Monarch, Neurosis. It's good this, isn't it? Even though we basically could just be listing chocolate bars. Damage your ears now, so you don't need to later.

For this fine triumvirate, the place to be is Buffalo, Windsor Place, Cardiff, 7.30pm-10.30pm (get there early), £5.

Wednesday, February 4

REMEMBER THE NIGHT PARTIES

Welcome to 2009, Lesson No.1 style. Okay, so we're a month late here, but everybody needs a Christmas break, right? Get back ON IT with this imminent little beauty on Monday 16 February...

Oxford Collapse come from Brooklyn and are signed to Sub Pop and basically play indie rock. Don’t make that face – if the wind changes, y’know. Oxford Collapse stay a country mile away from ‘generic and sappy’ and park their bus in ‘kicking and vital’ by virtue of sticking some frickin’ PUNK ROCK in there. Oddball punk rock like Meat Puppets and Husker Du and the Wipers. Mix that with the melody x noise = LOVE equation that serves/served The Thermals, Yo La Tengo and Superchunk very well and you have a dope band in our opinion. They were great at Le Pub last year. More people better come see them this time though. Get listening.

Exit International are one of two bands on the bill with the ‘people from a bunch of bands just starting out in another one check it out’ thing going on, featuring members of Midasuno, Space In The 50s, The Martini Henry Rifles and Stray Borders. This is one of their very first gigs – the first was in late November – and it will showcase their two-bass no-guitar rock tackle. We do believe they’ve been listening to some Girls Against Boys records, as a sensible boy or girl oughta. Check for yourself.

Markers are the other band on the bill with the ‘people from a bunch of bands just starting out in another one check it out’ thing going on. Some might describe them as Cardiff punk royalty, ex-Douglas (Doug to you oldies) and The Take no less, with Boom In The Diamond Industry (who weren’t from Cardiff) personnel also herein, offering up tunes for days. Six minutes’ worth on their MySpace page, anyhow. You can refresh the page when they finish. Catch 'em while they’re young! Listen before you go deaf!

The only way you can grab all this for the sweet price of £5 is head on down to Buffalo, Windsor Place, Cardiff from 8pm. We're going to try and run this a little late too for all those hopeless romantics who want to watch Cardiff City's FA Cup replay with Arsenal.

Also, it should be mentioned, you can now find Lesson No.1 on Facebook, so come stave off the inevitable loneliness of your own life by being our friend, yeah? For shame...